Fortune: I’ll never work with Freddie again

By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune is upset with legendary trainer Freddie Roach over comments Roach made after Pacquiao’s loss to WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas.

“Mark my words, I’ll never work with Freddie again,” Fortune told the Philippine Star. “He accused me for Manny’s loss to cover up his own inadequacies and didn’t do it to my face. Freddie made stupid statements, not even factual, about Manny running the hills at Griffith Park six days a week.”

After the fight, Pacquiao said he couldn’t move normally against Ugas because his legs were cramping from the second round on. Fortune said it’s hard to say why the cramps set in, but he was critical of Roach allowing a physiotherapist to massage Pacman’s legs 30 minutes before the fight.

“That’s a perfect formula to get cramps right away and it’s exactly what happened,” said Fortune.

Mama says Edwards will run
Valdez vs. Conceicao still a go for now

Top Boxing News

PLEASE READ
We have a few rules to make our comment section more enjoyable for everyone.
1. Keep comments related to boxing.
2. Be respectful, polite and keep it clean.
3. Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Offending posts will be removed.
Repeat offenders will be put on moderation.
  • A lot of people do seem to fall out with Roach. Maybe he is a bit of a dick behind the scenes

    • CB: you nailed it bud. He has become so arrogant that it is sickening. Yes, he is a great trainer, BUT, when things go wrong, he is always looking to point the finger to someone else. Personally, I think he is a real D-Bag!

    • He seems like a dick in front of the scenes. I can’t believe you haven’t picked up on that.

  • I remember Emanuel Steward being upset that Hearns got a leg massage before the Hagler fight and blamed it for weakening Hearns’ legs.

    • Hearns blamed himself for overtraining for Hagler in a 1988 interview, just Google about it. He said his legs were gone before the fight because of doing too much in training. Hearns didn’t blame the legs massage, but it probably didn’t help. Get the massage after the fight. Hearns didn’t really look great from 86 to 88 either, best years were 79 to 84.

      • Hearns also broke his hand on Marvin’s head in the first round. That sure didn’t help lol.

      • The massage before the fight could be categorized into the “overtraining”. Therefore it would not negate what Steward literally stated.

  • Manny lost the fight because he’s 43 years old…I know years back, Micheal Moorer was in the Pacquiao camp and was dismissed because of a falling out with The Roach. I have no idea what the deal was in either case, but boxing is a sport with a lot of ego and strong, know it all personalities. Traners are constantly bashing and accusing one another of incompetence, even in low level amateur boxing. Just imaginehow all that becomes inflated when they’re in the spotlight and making Pacquiao type money is at stake.

    • Well said. Good points. I recall when Roach fell out of boxing for a while after his actual fighting career was over and he was working regular jobs like telemarketing. He appeared frustrated with himself and the world around him. Keep in mind his health problems started not too long after he quit boxing. Once Roach found refuge in training, I am sure some of his past frustrations in life drove him to excel at training. That being said, maybe he struggles with the balance. I am sure this could happen to any of us going from one extreme to the other. Have a great weekend.

    • You’re making excuses. First, Manny isn’t 43. Second if he won’t age wouldn’t be a factor. It’s not that difficult to figure out why he lost. He lost because he doesn’t do well against smart fighters. Look at the men he lost to or had difficulties with. Marquez, Mayweather and Ugas have one thing in common. They’re smart technicians who are disciplined to the game plan. Manny typically fights these dumb brawl/ boxer puncher types. Technical fighters give him difficulty.Styles make fights.

  • I read the same thing went down before Tommy Hearns fought Hagler, with a leg massage right before the fight, and Emmanuel Stewart was pissed, it wasn’t something he knew was going down. But I read a long time ago too that Hearns overstrained for the fight. Maybe the version of Hearns that fought Duran had a better shot against Hagler. Anyway, Manny is 42, he’d be 43 before a rematch with Ugas.

  • I’ve become all too familiar with Roach and this kind of bullshit. Roach will always look for someone else to blame he can’t be a man and take any responsibility, typical whining crybaby.

    Whenever Roach pull this shit I watch the 7th round of his fight with Greg Haugen and get pleasure out of watching him get his ass kicked. If Roach keeps up this behavior I think I’m gonna give Haugen a call to come and knock some more sense into Roach.

  • i love freddy and pacman, but ya, that was a douche comment by roach.
    was there even any comment from pacman in between rounds that he said his legs were stiff? I think he underestimated ugas, last minute opponent change, and ugas being huge was the difference. can manny adapt for rematch. of course!! but lets give ugas some credit freddy.

  • I’ll never work with him again…next fight they still together hahaha…just relax man, it’s still covid season

  • A lot of trainers ;(Soccer, kick boxing, mma), do advocate against these massages before a competition in many sports. I don’t understand why they allowed it in the 1st place.

  • Manny lost because he’s too old. Period. It’s a young man’s sport. No trainer could have coached him to victory. The main cause of cramps is dehydration. Pre-fight massages probably don’t do a fighter any good, but I doubt they cause cramping. Emanuel Steward blamed Tommy Hearns’ loss to Hagler on a pre-fight massage, but it’s not as if Hearns didn’t look good moving in the ring that night. He fought furiously for about 8 straight minutes. He lost because he broke his hand against Hagler’s head.

  • A message right before a fight when you should purposefully be tense and full of adrenaline not a good idea. That should be done after fight to began recovery and flushing out lactic acid. Dude is about to go into war! Not a good idea. Ugas still won fair and square though. Let’s see the rematch!
    Freddie good dude so maybe just get over it possibly.

  • On a separate note. Why is Manny still fighting? If Freddie had Manny’s best interests at heart he should have told him long ago that he wanted him to stop boxing and that if he continued he couldn’t be a part of training him. I have an awful feeling that Bob Arum is holding Manny to ransom by keeping him fighting. He’s his cash cow. There’s a lot of people earning a living off Manny’s decision to continue fighting and at this stage it’s clear to me that they don’t have his best interests at heart. Manny has nothing left to prove. If he retires now even after that loss he’s still the greatest fighter of all time. His legs are cramping because the man is 44 years old and has had a very tough life. It kills me seeing him fight guy who wouldn’t lace his boots.

  • PAC-man is in his 40’s and Father Time caught up with him that’s it. Everyone is reading to much into this. He got old period end of story.

  • >